Deterring Democracy

Noam Chomsky

Deterring Democracy is a searing indictment of American imperialism
by its foremost critic.

Bush made a big fuss about Iraq's violation of international law in
invading Kuwait — but the US has more violations of international law
to its name than any other nation on the planet. American leaders
regularly claim to be fighting for democracy — but they back regimes
that don't even pretend to be democratic (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait), they
have directly overthrown democratically elected governments (Chile,
Guatemala), and they regularly subvert the natural course of democracy
(France and Italy after World War II, Nicaragua).

US presidents rail against minor acts of terrorism by arab nations —
but the US spent millions of dollars arming terrorists to attack
hospitals and schools in Nicaragua, attempted to assassinate Ghaddafi,
and continues to turn a blind eye to Israeli and South African
aggression in Mozambique and Lebanon. The US claims to be the leader of
"the international community" — but the US has vetoed more UN security
council resolutions than any other member and has several times been the
only dissenting member in UN general assembly resolutions.

And so forth.

And the US media studiously refrains from giving these things more than
fleeting mention. Those of us who can read between the lines in the
media reports (and who live outside the US and get less biased reports
anyway) probably knew most of this already, but having it all laid out
in detail is enough to make one feel ill. Anyone who takes anything
president Bush or his officials say on the subject of foreign policy at
face value should read Chomsky's book.